Janbaz Tarin had three children and a secret wife who was pregnant with a fourth child in Afghanistan.
Photograph: West Midlands police/EPA

A “savage and cowardly” double killer has been jailed for a minimum of 32 years for murdering his ex-partner and her mother when they found out he had a secret wife and children.

Janbaz Tarin, 21, stabbed Raneem Oudeh and her mother, Khaola Saleem, to death in a “brutal and heartrending” attack in Solihull on 27 August.

Oudeh, 22, had called police three times in the hours before the murders and was on the phone to a 999 call handler when he struck outside her mother’s home.

Tarin armed himself with a knife after a public row with Oudeh, who was his wife under Islamic law, before killing her and then Saleem when she tried to save her daughter, Birmingham crown court heard.

West Midlands police launched a nationwide hunt for the killer, who was captured after three days on the run. He pleaded guilty to the double murder on Monday.

Sentencing Tarin, the judge Mrs Justice Sue Carr said he had stalked his victims for days before the “sustained and vicious attack” outside their family home.

She described the murders as “significantly premeditated” and ordered him to serve a minimum of 32 years in prison. The judge paid tribute to the victims, whose deaths, she said, had devastated their family and community.

Oudeh, who met Tarin at college in Solihull, had ended her relationship with him in the weeks before his attack after learning that he had three children and a secret wife who was pregnant with a fourth child in Afghanistan.

Tarin had also lied to her about his age and “hassled” her into marriage before he turned threatening.

Oudeh had previously contacted the police about his behaviour, according to her relatives, and had obtained a court order against him after he smashed her phone 17 days before the murder.

When she discovered his lies, Tarin stepped up his harassment and slept outside her address for 12 consecutive nights. She told family members he had told her: “If you leave me, I will kill you and your family.”

The night before the murder, Tarin confronted his estranged partner and Saleem, 49, after following them to a shisha lounge. He was thrown out after slapping both victims in the face and making threats to kill them.

Oudeh called 999 at 10.34pm after the shisha incident and told police Tarin had assaulted her, that she had a court order against him and that she and her mother felt unsafe.

She phoned police again half an hour later to say she had left the shisha lounge and was on her way home. In a third call, at 11.42pm, she asked where the police were as she was waiting outside her home.

Officers tried to call her back shortly after midnight but there was no reply. They later advised her to go to her mother’s house, lock the doors and call if Tarin turned up.

In a final call shortly after midnight, police called Oudeh to say officers would see her at 8am. She and her mother were stabbed to death while Oudeh was on the phone.

Senior detectives described the crime as savage and “one of the most brutal and heartrending” they had seen.

The family’s previous contact with police is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct after a self-referral by West Midlands police.

DCS Mark Payne, the head of West Midlands police CID, said: “This was a premeditated, cowardly attack by a man with a history of violence towards women. He hunted down the victims, took a weapon to the scene, he hid in waiting for them. He jumped out and then inflicted savage, unsurvivable wounds on them.

“I want to thank the public for their response to this. As a result of the public assistance, we managed to locate Tarin and detain him. He’s now safely behind bars where he belongs.”